libcfg+: command line and configuration file parsing library
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# Chapter 1. Introduction

# 1.1. Overview

libcfg+ is a library for parsing command line arguments and/or configuration files. Your program can utilize it whenever either kind of parsing is needed. C was our language of choice, but a C++ wrapper is currently under development and will be probably available soon.

| This is one of the first releases of libcfg+. If you find a bug or missing feature, please notify us and we will try to address the issue as soon as possible. Also, let us know if you find typos or badly written portions of the documentation. We are not native English speakers, but we are improving our language skills every day!

There are two approaches to using libcfg+.

- You can install it as a separate library and dynamically link your application against it. If you are planning to distribute your application, you can always use the `./configure` script included with the application to detect whether libcfg+ has been installed on the target system. If not, user can be noticed to install this library.

  We are also working on the possibility of your application to check for the installation of libcfg+. If it is determined that libcfg+ does not exist on the target system or is not the required version, it will be added to that system automatically. Your application can then be properly compiled and linked.

  We know that this is a little bit sophisticated thing with need of lot of testing and improving on various systems and platforms. Detailed examples on how to detect, install or reinstall libcfg+ will be included. Please let us know of your experience because it will help us streamline the process.

- The other method of using libcfg+ is to simply add the library source code to your project source tree. In the example, the library source code can be put into a subdirectory called `libcfg+/`. Appropriate files of your application include the main library header file `cfg+.h`. Then compile the library and your sources and link everything together.

Some of the ideas used in this project were inspired by popt (a command line parsing library) and parsecfg (a library for parsing configuration files). However libcfg+ was written from scratch.

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